Garment with Ballistic Protective Insert

ABSTRACT

A soft armor compound curved compliant ballistic element is received within a pocket formed on a uniform garment having a main body which encircles the body of a wearer, and which is stretchable to conform to the wearer&#39;s body shape. The garment has two limb encircling sections, i.e., sleeves or pants legs, which position the garment with respect to the wearer. Pockets are formed on the garment sleeves, legs, or other regions to overlie those portions of the wearer&#39;s body which it is desired to protect. The soft armor elements are received in the pockets and are retained by the garment in close proximity to the portions of the wearer&#39;s body which it is desired to protect, such as a shoulder, a knee, a thigh, an elbow, an arm, a bicep, a forearm, the lower back, or the groin.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional App. No. 61/159,065, filed Mar. 10, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to ballistic protective apparel.

Persons exposed to projectile threats, such as police officers and soldiers, may seek a certain level of protection by wearing armored clothing. Low velocity projectiles such as handgun rounds, fragmentation rounds from a grenade or mortar, and miscellaneous shrapnel may be countered by so-called “soft armor.” Soft armor is worn in the form of jackets, vests, etc. which are composed of assemblies of ballistic fabric such as those formed from DuPont Kevlar® fibers or of Spectra® ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fibers from Honeywell. Soldiers will usually where these protective garments over their regular uniform garments. The soft armor is often fabricated as flexible panels which are received within pockets or pouches formed in fabric vests or jackets.

In more serious threat situations, where higher velocity rifle rounds and fragments must be countered, soft armor has typically been supplemented with hard armor fabricated of rigid plates of ceramic, polymer, or metal.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,892,392, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses soft armor ballistic elements fabricated of multiple layers of ballistic fabric material, for example duPont Kevlar® material, Akzo's Twaron® T-2000 microfilament aramid fiber material, or other conventional ballistic fabric. Fifteen to thirty layers of ballistic fabric are formed together with a 1/16 inch molded plastic stiffening layer which provides some three-dimensional shape.

Hard armor ballistic protective elements are known, for example in ballistic helmets. Yet a protective element that is too stiff can be uncomfortable to the wearer, especially when encountering obstacles or in situations requiring active movement, and even more especially when worn close to the wearer's body.

A modern soldier going into combat will be outfitted with three levels of equipment. First and most lightweight is the underwear, directly in contact with the soldier's skin. Over the underwear goes the uniform, usually trousers and a shirt. The uniform garment is formed of lightweight material, about 5-8 oz. fabrics, and is washed and laundered like ordinary clothing. A soldier will have multiple sets of uniform clothing, and they pack tightly in a small area. Conventionally, protective armor assemblies are worn over the uniform. The ballistic protective elements of the armor assembly is often retained within a supporting carrier fabricated of heavier material, and will be used repeatedly without laundering. The armor will typically have load carriage for extra magazines, supplies, etc. When it comes to efficient protective coverage of a particular part of a soldier's body, the closer the armor to the region in question the more effectively a given area of armor protects a given area of soldier. Take the example of a protective armor plate. If it is spaced an inch forward of the soldier, the plate will intercept projectiles from the front, but there is a range of attack angles in which a projectile can come in at the soldier around the sides of the plate. As the plate is moved closer to the soldier, these areas of vulnerability decrease in size.

Much of the soldier's body, though, is curved. As shown in FIG. 3, even a plate that is tangent to the body at a particular point, is likely going to be spaced from the body around a wide area.

What is needed is a protective arrangement that can effectively bring form fitting armor comfortably into close proximity to curved portions of a wearer's body.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The ballistic protective element of the present invention is preferably a compound curved sheet comprised of a stack of multiple layers of ballistic material, for example material of Kevlar® fibers, or Spectra® fiber material. The stack may be stitched around the periphery, to obtain the desired level of stiffening, a more or less thick plastic stiffening shape may be formed together with the layers of ballistic material. The ballistic protective element is preferably somewhat compliant and not so stiff as to excessively interfere with movement of the wearer. The ballistic element is received within a pocket formed on a uniform garment having a main body which encircles the body of a wearer, and which is stretchable to conform to the wearer's body shape. The garment has two limb encircling sections, that is sleeves or pants legs, which position the garment with respect to the wearer. Pockets are formed on the garment sleeves, legs, or other regions to overlie those portions of the wearer's body which it is desired to protect. Compound compliant soft armor elements are received in the pockets and are retained by the garment in close proximity to the portions of the wearer's body which it is desired to protect.

The ballistic element may have various compound shapes and be disposed at any desired location on a protective garment, for example to protect a shoulder, a knee, a thigh, an elbow, or an arm, a bicep, a forearm, the lower back, or the groin.

Because of the compound shape, the ballistic protective element can be better positioned to protect the guarded wearer, staying closer to the protected body when exposed to a threat, yet at the same time, the compliant capacity of the element makes it less likely to interfere significantly with the wearer's movements, especially when coming rapidly in contact with some obstacle.

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a ballistic protective element which is curved to stay close to a protected body part but which is not so rigid as to be unnecessarily uncomfortable.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a ballistic protection element which can be lightweight and of optimal size due to its close and conformable location to the protected area of the wearer.

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a ballistic protective element for the garment with ballistic protective insert of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a soldier wearing the garment with ballistic protective insert of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the shoulder region of a soldier indicating the angles of vulnerability of a hypothetical flat plate armor piece.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of the shoulder region of the soldier of FIG. 3, showing the improved protective coverage offered by a compound curved ballistic protective element.

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of a uniform shirt having compound curved soft armor ballistic elements received in pockets adjacent the shoulders of the shirt.

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view of the ballistic elements of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of an alternative embodiment ballistic protective element of this invention having a plastic stiffening element.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1-7, wherein like numbers refer to similar parts, a compliant body armor ballistic element 20 is shown in FIG. 1. The ballistic element 20 is a thin compound curved concave element, which may be about five-sixteenths inches thick. The element 20 is formed as a stack of multiple layers of ballistic material 25, for example material of Kevlar® fibers, or, for example, layers of material of Spectra® ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fibers from Honeywell. The stack is formed under heat and pressure with a resin as discussed below, and may be stitched around the periphery, in a quilted pattern, or otherwise, to form a stiffer ballistic element. To provide a finished appearance, the element may have a fabric covering 26 adhered thereto. In an alternative embodiment 100 additional stiffening shape is provided to the ballistic element by adding a stiffening plastic layer 102, as shown in FIG. 7 to the layers of ballistic material. By adding stiffness to the soft armor ballistic element 20, it is better able to retain its shape. The plastic layer may be about 1/16 to 1/32 inches thick polycarbonate such as General Electric's Lexan® polycarbonate resin thermoplastic material, and may be adhered or stitched to the ballistic element as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,892,392. By “ballistic element” is meant an element configured to resist ballistic projectiles or fragments.

The ballistic element is formed in a diaphragm press, employing vacuum forming techniques in which a lay up of ballistic material sheets with resin material between the sheets is positioned on an underlying heated mold having the desired compound shape. A vacuum is applied to draw the sheets to the underlying mold, and a rubber sheet is brought down over the lay up to apply even pressure to cause the lay up to conform to the mold under heat and pressure, which causes the resin to set up. In place of a rubber sheet a metal or rubber match mold could be used. In this fashion the compound curved ballistic element is formed, avoiding the necessity to employ slits or darts in the ballistic material sheets. The pressure and temperature in the press should be selected such that the formed ballistic element is not a hard shell, but is instead somewhat compliant and resilient. Hence the ballistic element is capable of keeping its shape and being disposed in close proximity to the portion of the wearer's body which it is protecting, but it is nevertheless capable of deforming in response to an obstruction or interference with some obstacle.

As shown in FIG. 2, a uniform garment of flexible fabric such as a shirt 106 encircles the body of a wearer 107. The main body of the shirt 106 is a vertically extending generally tubular torso portion 109 which is preferably formed of a stretchable material which readily conforms to a wearer's body shape, and tends to keep the garment 106 in place with respect to the wearer.

As shown in FIG. 5, the torso portion 109 may be fabricated of a stretchable fabric, for example having a stretch of 60 to 100 percent, and may be cotton, wool, polyester, nylon, or a blend thereof. It may be a polyester, Lycra® brand synthetic polyurethane-based elastane textile blend, which is stretchy and form fitting. A cotton material may be used where flame retarding properties are required. Cotton will usually not wick as well, but also resists melting better for environments likely to encounter flame and melting temperatures.

The garment 106 has two limb encircling sections 111 in the form of sleeves which are sewn to the torso portion 109. The sleeves 111 may be comprised of outwardly facing more durable fabric segments 113, as well as inner segments 115 which are stretchy and of the same material as the torso portion and which help to secure the sleeves in position with respect to the wearer.

Each sleeve 111 has a pocket 108 positioned to overlie a portion of the wearer's body which it is desired to protect, for example one of the wearer's shoulders. Each pocket has a flap 110 which is releasably openable to receive a compound curved compliant ballistic element 20 therein. The ballistic elements 20 can thus be removed from the garment when the garment is laundered. As shown in FIG. 1, a shoulder protecting ballistic element may be a generally dished element which is concave opening downwardly toward the wearer. The shoulder is a good example of a region of the body which the present invention effectively offers protection to. The shoulder will move with the wearer's arm movements, yet the intimate contact provided by the garment keeps the protective ballistic element closely associated with the shoulder throughout its movement. Of course, the pocket 108 may be positioned to overlie any portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect. Because the garment retains the ballistic elements 20 in such intimate contact with the wearer, they may be optimally sized, and will generally stay in a desired position despite movements the wearer may make. The garment will usually be in direct contact with the wearer's skin, or nearly so through the intermediary of an undergarment such as a T-shirt. The garment thus is configured to retain the compliant soft armor element 20 received within the pocket retained in close proximity to the portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect. As shown in the illustration of FIG. 4, the compound curved element 20, by more nearly conforming to the shape of the wearer's body, gives more extensive ballistic protection that a flat plate.

The basic shirt may be one comprised of regions of different stretchability for use beneath load carriage equipment or body armor, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,948, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. The flaps may be closed with strips of hook and loop fastener, such as VELCRO® fastener manufactured by Velcro Industries B.V.

It should be noted that although a compound curved ballistic element is shown and described, a compliant element which is a developable surface may also be employed where desired. Although a shirt is illustrated as the garment which receives the ballistic elements, trousers or another garment may also be employed as a carrier for the ballistic elements.

It is understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described, but embraces all such modified forms thereof as come within the scope of the following claims. 

1. A ballistic protective assembly comprising: a garment having a main body which encircles the body of a wearer, and which is stretchable to conform to the wearer's body shape, and having two limb encircling sections; portions connected to at least one limb encircling section defining a pocket positioned to overlie a portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect; and a compliant soft armor ballistic element received within the pocket and thereby retained in close proximity to the portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect.
 2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the garment comprises a shirt and the limb encircling sections comprise sleeves, and wherein the pocket is formed on an upper portion of a sleeve to retain the ballistic element in close proximity to the shoulder of the wearer.
 3. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the portion of the wearer's body which is offered protection by the soft armor ballistic element is selected from the group consisting of a shoulder, a knee, a thigh, an elbow, or an arm, a bicep, a forearm, a lower back, and a groin.
 4. A ballistic protective assembly comprising: a garment having portions formed of stretchable fabric having a stretch of 60 to 100 percent, and disposed to encircle a wearer; portions of the garment defining at least one pocket configured to overlie a region of the wearer which it is desired to protect from ballistic assault; and a ballistic protective element received within the at least one pocket, the ballistic protective element having a plurality of layers of ballistic material formed under heat and pressure to define a compliant compound curved shape, the garment retaining the ballistic protective element in close proximity to the region of the wearer it is desired to protect.
 5. The ballistic protective assembly of claim 4 further comprising a plastic stiffening element formed with the ballistic protective element.
 6. The ballistic protective assembly of claim 4 wherein the region of the wearer's body which is offered protection by the ballistic protective element is selected from the group consisting of a shoulder, a knee, a thigh, an elbow, or an arm, a bicep, a forearm, a lower back, and a groin.
 7. A ballistic protective assembly comprising: a garment having a main body which encircles the body of a wearer, and wherein a sleeve extends from the main body; portions connected to the sleeve which define a pocket positioned to overlie a portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect; and a compliant soft armor ballistic element received within the pocket and thereby retained in close proximity to the portion of the wearer's body it is desired to protect.
 8. The assembly of claim 7 wherein the pocket is formed on an upper portion of the sleeve to retain the ballistic element in close proximity to the shoulder of the wearer. 